Breakout
by inkbender
Summary: The world as the Sakurada family knows it ends in the span of a single morning. Alternatively, you could say their world never really began until that fateful morning. Darkfic.
1. Gravity Core I

_{Run.}_

" _Hey Akane. Your skirt's flipping."_

" _Hm?" She performs a perfect pirouette. "Enjoying the view, brother dearest?"_

 _{Run, Akane.}_

 _Her wireless earpiece temporarily mutes a longsuffering sigh. "You're not wearing any underwear."_

 _She laughs. "And you're about to send me out onto the battlefield, Haruka. Panties should be the least of your concerns."_

* * *

 _{RUN!}_

Akane snaps awake. Her bottom doesn't press against the mattress and she instinctively curls into a defensive ball - she's zero-gravitied herself into unexpected places before, like the bathroom or the grand hall or, once last summer, out the window and into the castle moat. Only when she doesn't impact anything gross or hard or sharp or wet does she dare to squeeze an eye open.

Good, still in her bedroom. Is this another breakout? Her superpower doesn't feel like it's out of control… Honestly she doesn't even feel like she's activating it. She cautiously recalibrates her gravitational pull until she alights upon solid ground again.

 _{They're coming!}_

She jumps, trips over her bed, and tumbles head over heels. Her head thuds against the wall and stars burst across her vision, obscuring a fuzzy image that had blipped into her mind the moment she'd made contact with the floor: a naked young girl with flowing purple hair floating in the darkness of space.

 _Shiori?_

Ow, that hurt… Hands wrapped around the pulsing bump, she rolls onto her side and catches a glimpse of the clock across the room.

Crap! Late for class again!

Pants-now she's a university student, she'll never wear a school uniform skirt again, not if she can help it. Random shirt. Light jacket. Kitchen for a poptart. Fashionable pumps at the front door-not walking wear, but the only walk she'll do today is from the door of her classroom to the nearest available desk. Ski goggles. Finally, her keys.

The moment her apartment door is locked, she blasts off from the balcony into the skies above Castle Town.

So focused Akane is on getting to her university before class begins that she almost doesn't notice the obstacle until she nearly collides with it. The ski goggles keep small things - mostly insects - out of her eyes, and she's traveled this path enough to memorize the big things to avoid, like street signs and lights. But this obstacle… this is different. It's a cell phone.

A floating cell phone.

She turns on a dime and skids to a stop before the curiosity. How is it doing that? And so high off the ground too…

A flash of light catches her eye - the reflection of the morning sun off another floating phone. A little farther beyond is a tube of lipstick. A pack of tissues. A fork. A smattering of 100-yen coins. Dozens of tiny items all around her, rising slowly but steadily into the sky. But… how?

She grounds herself in a relatively isolated location as soon as possible. The whispered wonderments of a thousand citizens crushes her the moment she lands and she wants to cry, _This isn't me! I can't do this!_ But the words die in her throat as their eyes burn holes through her back, so she pulls out her cell phone instead.

Mom's phone goes to voicemail. So does Aoi's. Her eyes sting with nervous tears while she dials in Shu's line. He may be busy training to become Castle Town's future king but he's always had a soft spot for her. Maybe he'll…

 _The number you have dialed is no longer in service._

"Princess Akane…" a nervous boy stammers behind her. She yelps and almost drops her phone. "Could you maybe-"

"I don't know!" she cries. "I-I-I don't know what's wrong! B-But…" She takes a moment to catch her breath. "But as your loyal princess Akane, I promise you I will find out who's doing this and fix it!"

Without waiting for an answer, she rockets straight into the sky, all the way until she's cleared the shortest of skyscrapers, up and up until she's out of earshot of a thousand accusing lips, out of sight of a hundred thousand glares. She alights upon the nearest tower with her phone already dialing Kanade, but in the whispers of the wind she thinks she hears that purple-haired girl again.

 _{Run.}_

* * *

 _Author's Rant_

 _Yo! Inkbender here. I'm mostly on Archive of Our Own (AO3) nowadays; their tagging system is VERY cool. However, AO3 currently doesn't have a Castle Town Dandelion fandom, so back to FFN it is! For the first time in years._

 _The fandom isn't very large here either, so it's almost a shame I'm about to tarnish such a cute, funny, slice-of-life anime with some pretty dark material. The really intense stuff I'm saving for AO3, since AO3 actually has an **Explicit** rating in its filters. But **WARNINGS** for major character death here. No happy endings either. Proceed at your own risk._

 _This will probably be updated every day. When I've completed the entire story, I'll post it over at AO3 as a one-shot, but include it within a series so I can add all that dirty explicit stuff._


	2. Transporter I

" _Is this really necessary?"_

" _You heard Haruka. It's the plan with the highest probability of success." He doesn't have to look to know she's tilting her head mockingly. "Don't tell me you're getting cold feet, future King."_

 _He rocks his chair back until he's staring at the curved metal ceiling. "We've come too far for that, Kanade. No turning back now."_

* * *

Economy. Healthcare. Public safety. Foreign affairs.

If Shu had known the kingship required _this_ much paperwork, he would have conceded to Kanade long ago. Never mind her hidden agenda to fix his legs. With all the checks and balances set in the government system by their ancestors, she would never have been able to devote the entire national budget to the advancement of medical research. As is, he's seated in one spot within the confines of the castle 24/7 anyways, shadowing his father's activities. With his twenty-first birthday already celebrated and past, all that's left is his official coronation ceremony. He'll be king.

Probably more like a figurehead king, but eh, details. He's fine with leaving the nitty-gritty details to government officials more experienced than he.

Somewhere nearby, somebody sets off firecrackers. _Pop pop pop._ The windows rattle. Shu checks his phone; it's only 09:15. Maybe some foreign ambassador with a penchant for dramatic entrances is setting off fireworks in the castle courtyard. It's the only reason Shu can think of for such a disturbance this early in the morning.

His wireless earpiece buzzes. Eh, what did that signal mean again? Emergency…?

" _...repeat, code silver. Intruder has breached the main gate. Lockdown initiated. Code silver. I repeat…"_

Code silver is a firearm. Shu's blood turns ice cold. Not firecrackers. Gunfire in the castle courtyard? But how - ?

" _Lethal force deemed necessary. Protect the King. Shoot to kill."_

Shu drops his phone. He's been surrounded by security cameras and guards all his life but never has he even heard this kind of violence. What's going on? Are they accidentally broadcasting to his frequency? Regardless, his bedroom is not a safe place. He needs to move to the safe room, now. He may not exactly remember where it is so teleporting there isn't an option, but guards should be in soon to escort him there.

Where are the guards?

" _The king has been compromised! Gunfire is ineffective on the intruder! The intruder - headed f - prince's suite - why - secured, wh - his guards - I think you've heard enough, haven't you?"_

Shu startles at the abrupt interruption by a familiar yet completely strange voice. It's most definitely his younger brother speaking, albeit in a slightly higher but much more condescending tone. "Haruka?" he blurts, forgetting he has no mouthpiece to reply with.

" _You can run all you want. You can try to hide. But know that by the end of today, dear brother Shu, you will no longer exist to this world."_

"Haruka, why are you…"

He trails off. A black-clad figure stands in front of his locked door. The intruder tosses something at him. His fingers close around ice-cold metal and he almost drops it - a gun, the person just tossed him a gun, what -

"Defend yourself," says the figure, raising their own pistol.


	3. Absolute Order I

" _Lockdown the entire preschool when you've completed your task. No one gets in or out. Cut their communication and internet lines as well. I need to check up on something, but I'll deal with them in a bit."_

" _Yes ma'am."_

" _Address me as 'Your Royal Highness' from now on. Honestly, how insane would a nation have to be to elect Shuu as their king?" She laughs heartily. The soldiers echo her laughter, albeit hollowly. She rolls her eyes. "Silence."_

 _The empty chuckles cease immediately._

* * *

"So Momotaro and his friends sailed to the devil's island to fight the biggest devil," Aoi reads to the circle of young children. She smiles fondly at the memory of Nanao, Shizuru, and Uzuki designating for each other the roles of the sparrow, monkey, and dog on the day she discovered her actual power. It's one of her most cherished memories. "On the island, they saw many devils waiting for them, but they were eager to fight to protect their village."

A sharp pain strikes her left temple. She tumbles into darkness amid the screams of the kids. Her first instinct is to draw them within her embrace, to protect them from the unknown threat-but she can't see anything, much less move her limbs. They feel like lead. Her entire body feels like lead. She -

 _{I'm sorry.}_

… _Shiori?_


	4. Overlimit I

" _Whatever you're doing, you have to stop."_

 _Even with the majority of her concentration focused on reading the ley lines of this new world, his baby sister has still enough energy to turn her huge purple eyes upon him. "We have to give them a chance."_

" _Shiori, please…" He draws closer to her, as if doing so will shield her from the wrath of their older siblings. "You can't. You'll get in trouble."_

" _Balance. Equal opportunity," she says distantly, not really talking to him anymore. He holds her limp hand (gently, avoiding any sort of squeezing motion), searching for some sign of his dear baby sister and finding nothing but the blank expanse of space. "Those are the only things that really matter."_

 _A shadow looms over them. He immediately whirls about, hot blood filling his cheeks, and shouts, "It's my fault! I'm the one distracting her-"_

" _Move aside, Teru," Aoi smiles. "I'll deal with this little speedbump."_

* * *

The Sakurada family powers have evolved and branched out in unpredictable ways as they matured, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that Akane (accidentally?) managed to expand her reach beyond physical contact.

The entirety of Castle Town though? Seriously? Teru's done a pretty good job over the years keeping a tight rein on his super strength, if he has to say so himself. Especially during breakouts when his power is literally out of his control. And while a slightly lighter world was certainly fascinating to a younger sister piggybacking on her brother's back as they leapt over buildings in a single bound on their way to school, the novelty wore off as soon as Teru's last eraser flew out of his grasp and pegged his class representative in the back of her head.

Gee thanks, dearest sister.

Homeroom has barely ended before one of Teru's friends practically collides with his desk. "Dude, have you seen this news report?" he whisper-shouts, almost shoving his phone up Teru's nose.

"What?" Teru grabs his friend's wrist (carefully, gently) and pulls the phone away to a respectable distance. Pictures. Lots of smoke. Smoke filling a lot of empty space. "What is it?"

"This is Lake Town!" His friend is practically foaming at the mouth. "This is a live feed!"

Teru glances at the smattering of photos and video again. Most of the pictures are just grey smoke, but further inspection reveals the dim outlines of concrete, steel shards… nothing (aside from flames) standing more than two feet in the air. Like the entire city was leveled in an instant, but not by an explosion… more like a giant stepped on the entire city, crushing everything into gravel and sand.

His classroom door slams open before he can comment. It's Shiori; her seventh grade class is on the floor above. First period is about to start. What is she doing here?

Shiori's eyes abruptly roll into the back of her head. "Teru…"

He clears the entire room with a single jump, rebounds off the chalkboard, and just barely catches his baby sister before she collapses against the doorframe. He cradles her in his arms and bundles her towards the nurse's station without a word to his homeroom teacher; she probably understands. This isn't the first time Shiori's superpower has drained all her energy. The last time she spoke with the land itself, she detected an earthquake a full day before the seismometers did. She just needs hydration and rest at the nurse's office.

A tug at his blazer's lapel draws his eyes downward. Shiori's lips move feverishly, but "Run" makes Teru's ears several times. The words seem to echo in his mind too.

 _{Run. Run while you can.}_

Her breaths are quickened. Her eyelids flutter like frantic butterflies and her pupils underneath dart back and forth wildly. Something cold and slick wraps around Teru's heart and _squeezes_. "Shiori, hang in there," he begs.

"We're too late…"

"Not yet," he assuages. "We're almost to the nurse's office."

Her condition seems to stabilize as she focuses on tugging at his jacket with all of her feeble strength. "We can still save Hikari."

Hikari? Who cares about that bossy old hag? Why should Shiori care, when she herself is barely holding onto consciousness? "What happened? What did the earth tell you?"

Every bone in Shiori's body seems to disappear right then; she practically dissolves into dead weight in his arms. He fights his terror for control ( _do not crush Shiori, do not crush your baby sister_ ) but he can't help it when he comes across the nurse's closed office door and his arms are full and the sign has been flipped to _busy_. It doesn't matter, Shiori is more important than anything else going on.

"Help!" he screams, kicking down the door to the nurse's office.

Shiori jolts awake in the next moment, both hands finding the fistfuls of his shirt. "Run! Please Teru, we have to save Hikari. Save Hikari and get out of Castle Town!"

Hands take Shiori away from him. Shiori resists for two seconds and Teru almost slaps their hands away ( _control your emotions, do not hurt the nurse_ ), but she slumps into unconsciousness once again and he allows adults more experienced to take care of his baby sister.

Save… Hikari?

 _{Run. They're coming!}_

He blinks at the unexpected voice in his head. Urgency surges through his veins. Shiori told him to 'save' Hikari. And, well, he's always wanted to be a hero. Still does. The school principal will excuse his actions once the news covers his heroic deeds at Hikari's high school.

He blasts out the doors of his junior high at superpowered speeds.


	5. Heaven's Gate I

_Her twin drops her off at Castle Town's general hospital. The building is a glorious structure of steel and glass. Heat signatures are easily visible throughout all its many floors, and with the targeting algorithms of the eyepiece she pulled from the far future she easily picks out her target._

 _Lunch break on the roof. It's like she's asking to be picked off._

" _Threaten and hurt her. Break her if you want to," says her partner. "But don't kill her. She's their only alternative."_

" _I'm running on Haruka's orders, not yours." She scoffs. "It's indecisive bullshit like this that makes me wonder why any country would elect_ _ **you**_ _as their king."_

* * *

The hospital is a wonderful place bursting with knowledgeable medical professionals and the latest biotechnological research. It's exactly the environment Kanade wanted to become the best primary care provider she can be. Akane's city-wide power incontinence is a weird twist to an already busy day, but as a whole it's brought up the patient morale so Kanade's not complaining… yet. The roof, however, is a heavenly area unto itself; here on the roof, it's _quiet._

Deserted.

Except for the woman dressed entirely in black on the other end of the rooftop.

She looks like a ninja cosplayer from some popular assassination anime. She's completely covered from head to toe, disguising her identity; she even has a mask that probably distorts her voice. Kanade's stranger danger blips once, but when the woman doesn't appear to be a disturbance, Kanade politely takes a seat underneath a sakura tree and pulls out her bento. Dappled sunlight falls through blossoming cherry blossoms to create beautiful art on the steel lid of her lunch.

Everything abruptly goes dark.

In the same moment, something impacts her at incredible speeds. Her body folds around the small person. It feels like a person, steady arms cradling her protectively as she curls her head and suppresses her instinctual nausea at the sudden acceleration. The air around her shudders with the collision of something gigantic crunching into the concrete of the rooftop.

"Run!" he yells. She regains her senses long enough for a cursory glance at her savior-a boy, much smaller in stature than she, also dressed entirely in black. "Stick to populated areas, she-"

Crackling fire erupts over their heads. The stench of gasoline fills her nostrils before she's roughly thrown from danger. She flexes her mental muscle and summons a large cylinder of water to slow her trajectory. She almost blacks out from impact alone, suggesting she was traveling at much higher velocities than should be humanly possible, but it does the trick; the water is free and she lands on her feet with the chance to finally assess the situation.

A fallen water tank lies within a pool of floating sakura petals and wood shards. Between her and the black-clad woman is a small inferno, its flames rising heavensward due to reduced gravity. Within that fire is the teenage boy, his posture proud and defiant and miraculously unharmed, despite the burning clothes dropping off his frame.

His chest swells as he takes a massive gulp of air. His exhale is less a puff and more a gale of fiery wind that washes over the concrete where the woman once stood. Their attacker moves quickly, darting back and to the side; her arms whip out and a _grenade_ materializes from nowhere to fly at the boy. He literally punches the first away but doesn't catch onto the second one in its shadow, and Kanade can't bite back a scream as the boy disappears in a flash of light-

Steel shrapnel from the fragmentation grenade embeds itself into concrete, blows out sections of the chain-link fence, shreds the decorative flowers and trees, and drops harmlessly from the back of the blonde boy shielding her once again.

"T-Teru?" she stammers. He'd appeared before her in the blink of an eye and looks exactly like her baby brother… yet worlds different. The sharp angles of his face, the scars crisscrossing his unburned chest, the hard glint in his eyes. "Who are you?"

"I'm not on your side," he growls. He flinches, then blurs forward abruptly, smashing into her with the force of a punch even though he's still trying to shelter her with his scrawny body. Bullets scream past her ears-then her stomach flips into her throat as Teru brushes the chain-link fence aside like tissue paper and, with her body squashed in one arm, leaps off the twelve-story building.

If Teru's sudden development in super strength/durability/speed is anything to go by, he can probably survive the 150 foot drop. She won't even with Akane's minor gravity changes in effect, so she creates mini geysers of water beneath them at even intervals along the parabolic trajectory of their descent. Teru curses up a storm the entire way down (another indication that all is not right with the world), so by the time they hit the asphalt of a filled parking lot she's just as eager to part from him as he is.

"What have you done to Teru?" she shouts. "Who -"

He grabs her elbow. She stifles a scream; he's going to break it! "Shut up and listen to me," he snarls, shaking her like a rag doll. Her arm, _her arm!_ "Find your Shuu and your Haruka. If you want to stay alive, that's your only alternative. Go!"

He pushes her away with such force, her bottom skids on the wet pavement. She clutches her bruised joint and stands on legs that don't feel like supporting her weight right now. Her phone. It's still in her locker at the hospital. Her purse too. She's naked here, nothing but a drenched white coat and professional wear and hospital identification on her, but all those years on student council eliminate the shaky insecurities from her voice when she says, "Why did you help me?"

His expression collapses for just a second before his mask is up again. "Equal opportunity. It's what Shiori wants." He points to the rooftop angrily. "But that bitch? It's easier for her in the short term to get rid of you. So find your twin and run while you can. Don't wait for anybody else; they're probably dead. Your life depends on it."


	6. Soulmate I

_This world brims with untapped potential. Its lifestream responds to her touch without reservation and fills her with millennia of memories. Lush green landscapes. Abundant harvests. Twinkling stars in a cloudless night sky. Energy flows easily from the tops of snow-capped mountains to the depths of eternal oceans, from the bloody birth of an innocent one to the bloody stasis of an anguished one._

" _The children," the anguished one murmurs. "Where are the children?"_

 _She recognizes this soul. It glows with the same aura of her eldest sister, yet shines brighter and purer even in passing. She connects with it briefly, if only to assuage its sorrow before it disperses into the greater lifestream._

" _I'm sorry."_

 _The soul latches onto her like a slimy leech onto a warm body. "Shiori? What are you doing here?"_

" _I'm not who you think I am." She'll need to mask her spiritual presence if their mind's eye actually visualizes her as their baby sister. A big ball of light will do._

" _Shiori, what happened? Why -"_

" _He saw you as our greatest threat. If he could speak with the earth - or just listen to me - he'd know you wouldn't hurt a fly." She projects some sort of tender gesture. Maybe cupping the cheek, or pressing a kiss to the soul's nonexistent forehead? It's demeaning, but she'll do whatever it takes to keep this world's lifeforce as positive as possible. "It is what it is. I'm sorry, Aoi. Your Absolute Order had to go."_

* * *

She awakens with tears leaking down her face.

"Teru?" she warbles, sitting upright. A bed in the nurse's office. Did she collapse again? Did Teru bring her here?

She carefully swings her legs out from under the sheets and hesitantly places her feet on the tile. Sure enough, faint whispers drift up into her fuzzy mindscape. For the first time in her life, the earth speaks to her first. It fills her with urgent warnings, but here in the school its messages are muted by concrete and steel and wood.

 _{Shiori, what happened? Why?}_

Her entire body lights up with terror. "Aoi!" she shrieks. In her head? How?

"Ms Shiori?" calls the nurse. "How are you feel - get back here this instant! You aren't well!"

Shiori jumps out the second-story window a second later onto the largest branch of a blooming sakura tree. Her landing probably divests the tree of half its petals, but she manages to shimmy her way to the trunk. Already the whispers are louder, pulsing through the lifeforce of the tree and into her hands as she climbs downward. She leaps the last couple feet onto a patch of grass and immediately presses her hands into the ground, blocks out the nurse's yells, and focuses.

 _{I'm sorry, Aoi.}_

 _{I'm sorry, Aoi.}_

"I'm sorry, Aoi," she echoes. Hot tears blur her vision. Her eldest sister…

 _{Save Hikari.}_

 _{You're not too late.}_

Large hands cup her cheeks gently. A familiar, comforting voice reverberates into her ears, but she comprehends nothing but the warnings of the land through her palms. "Save Hikari," she echoes, not really speaking to anyone anymore. "We have to save Hikari."


	7. God's Hand I

**_WARNING:_** _Graphic depictions of violence and bloodshed this chapter. As the Sakurada family has never known brutality, they're hypersensitive and easily traumatized. Proceed at your own risk._

* * *

" _Fascinating."_

 _When no particular explanation is forthcoming from her earpiece, she sighs. "I'll bite. What is it, brother dearest?"_

" _Nothing that concerns your path, Hikari. Continue as planned."_

" _You bastard. You can't bait me and then leave me hanging. Fishing for compliments doesn't work like that. I'm stroking your superiority complex here. The least you could do is come for me."_

" _You're absolutely disgusting."_

" _You know it's true. Explain those dirty numbers to me, Haruka."_

" _If you insist. Their probability of success along the alternate pathway has increased by a good 5.3%. By comparison, regardless of your actions, the numbers shift by approximately 0.071%. Do whatever you want, dear sister. I don't care."_

 _Two clicks in her earpiece indicate that he's muted her. That fucking bastard! She'll show him. What'll the numbers say when she reduces the entire fucking high school to dust and ashes?_

* * *

High school is so fu… freakin' boring!

Hikari's known since childhood that she was going into the entertainment business; she doesn't need a high school education. Maybe Shuu will allow her to age herself up a few years so she can pass as a senior. Wouldn't it be so cool if she could graduate alongside Misaki and Haruka?

Eh, but even when Shuu becomes king, Dad will still be his advisor. Not to mention he'll still be, y'know, her dad. Uuuugh. And Mom's three hundred times more stubborn than Dad, so begging her for early graduation is a lost cause.

The boy in the desk behind hers won't stop bouncing his leg. The entire floor around her feels like it's shaking. So fu… freakin' annoying. As much as she wants to snap at him though, her manager wants her to project this cheerful bubbly happy manic pixie dream girl shtick to the public eye. This also includes family-friendly swearing, so she settles for reaching back with a dainty finger and tapping his desk twice.

The windows in the entire back half of the classroom explode. Wind disturbs the tiny hairs on her forearm, weightless glass shards sparkle past her head, and something warm and wet splashes onto her outstretched hand.

Her squeal disappears into the myriad of screams echoed by her classmates. She snatches her hand to her chest - wet, still wet - but freezes when her fingers come up red. Red, so red. Blood? B-But why? Where? She doesn't feel any pain. Who…

She turns her head, just far enough to catch the splatter of crimson along the far walls of her classroom, before quickly angling her face at the floor to upchuck today's breakfast. Oh my gods. Holy… crap. Holy shit. The flowering sakura tree just outside her school is no longer; in its place stands a gnarled monstrosity that somehow grew fifty years in the span of three seconds and thrust its growing, twisted branches into the bodies of her screaming classmates.

This isn't a nightmare. This isn't a dream. This is her superpower in action. This is her at her worst.

"Holy fuck," her voice says. "And here I thought you'd put up more of a fight."

Hikari's body moves without her consent. Her eyes glide over the broken bodies, the knobbly branches drenched red, and snap onto the woman with her unmasked face and hair and voice, exactly the same as her save for the all-black outfit and the cruel glint in her ice blue eyes.

"W-Who are you?"

The other her rolls her eyes. "Isn't it obvious? You're me, only weak and pathetic." She stares down her nose at the destroyed room around her. "Poor Castle Town. I'll bet this world has never experienced war, huh. Not even drought and famine? Riots and fire, maybe? Does anybody even jaywalk here?"

Life pulses through Hikari's fingers as she rests them on the desktop of the boy who's once bounced his leg. He's halfway across the room now. She shuts him out. Don't puke. Don't panic. Focus on the performance. Her life could depend on it. "You're… from another universe?" She doesn't have to feign wide-eyed fear or the warble in her words.

"This is my world now," her evil other grins. Screams echo from the - from the bodies draped along the - the tree limbs as they shudder and sprout new branches and -

She barely reanimates the wood at her fingertips in time to save herself; Its size swells with Hikari's lifeforce, expanding into a massive wall that blocks the wooden serpents angling for her torso and face.

New screams announce the fates of the rest of her class all around her.

Tears burn tracks down Hikari's cheeks. Hot crimson paints the floor. Her ears have all but shut out the agony of people she never cared and now may never get to know. Jagged black spears are all around her; she has no escape. Her cry for help comes out as a choked whisper.

"That was a pretty cool trick you did there," her other comments, rounding the defensive wall. Her fingers trail along the length of a branch. Tiny twigs sprout from the wood all around Hikari, sharp points stretching out eagerly. It's an unspoken threat: _just try running._ "Maybe I could learn a thing or two from you. You still callin' it _God's Hand_?"

Entertainment pushed Hikari past her breaking point several times in her past. Perverts have tried to kidnap her. An attempt was made on her life once by a suicidal fan. However, never has her singing career prepared her to stare down certain death with bravado. She was never trained for combat and reanimating the wooden desk alone has drained her of what little stamina she possessed. She knows nothing of war or famine or riots. Nobody can fault her for breaking down into tears as her other grasps her chin and forces their eyes to meet.

"I fine-tuned my power into something so incredible, I had to rename it," she coos. "I like to call it _Death's Touch._ "


	8. All For One I

**_WARNING:_** _Graphic depictions of violence and bloodshed this chapter. Proceed at your own risk._

* * *

 _{Envy here. Security cameras at Royal Sakurada High School are all on five-second feedback loops.}_

 _{Lust reporting in. Cellular and data services have been disabled for the high school and all surrounding districts.}_

 _{Yo from Greed. I'm getting rid of the citizens who don't GTFO when we tell 'em to.}_

 _{It's Wrath. I've hacked the metro mainframe. Trains and subways won't stop in those districts.}_

 _{Um… I guess I cut the power. Oh. I'm Sloth… so yeah.}_

 _{Gluttony. We're out of pudding.}_

 _She cuts off all mental connections to her clones and focuses entirely on running her fingers through the lavender hair of the head in her lap. "You lied."_

 _Her twin practically purrs with pleasure. "It was a half-truth."_

" _She was your sister," she says just to provide him the opportunity to argue._

" _And now she's a loose cannon, don't deny it. Kanade at least pretends to be in control. She might be short a few screws after our trip, but she's holding it together. Hikari's just going to get herself killed sooner than later. It's just a matter of who she drags down to hell with her."_

 _She drapes a hand across his neck, fingernails resting just underneath the curve of his jaw. It'd be so easy to strangle him against her thigh. He'd pass out from oxygen starvation in a couple seconds. She could do anything she'd like to him and he wouldn't run his bitchy little mouth the entire time. Wouldn't that just be lovely? "And what about me, brother dearest? What am I to you?"_

 _He smiles. "You're my world."_

 _She curls into herself and presses a kiss to his forehead. "That's my Pride."_

* * *

When Misaki's phone lights up for the fourth time that hour, she excuses herself to the restroom and sends Inari back in her place.

"What the heck is going on, Akane?" she hisses. "If Teru can hold back hurricane-force sneezes during his breakouts, you can tone down on the whole weightless thing!"

SIlence. Then a disconnecting beep.

"Hello?" She glances at her phone. No bars. What is this? Castle Town has never had issues with cellular service…

Vibrations reverberate through her feet. Seconds later, the fluorescent lights go out. The security cameras keep running though and that calms Misaki. Shuu ultimately made the decision to keep Dad's thousands of cameras all around town (to Akane's dismay) for royalty use only (still to Akane's dismay). Video surveillance cuts down on the need for human bodyguards to shadow their every move, which Misaki has been grateful for all her life.

Until the moment the emergency lights die as well.

The cameras are still running. The guards can still see her.

Both the emergency lights and cameras are run by independent power sources supplied and protected by national security. Both going out would be terrifying. Just one going out is… mildly terrifying.

"I'm on it," says Levi, manifesting out of nowhere and sprinting off into the darkness.

Yuniko steps into view. "Want me to check out the explosions?"

There _was_ a second vibration a little while ago… "I'll do that. You run surveillance for me, please." She sighs as five more clones materialize. "All of you. Lay low."

"I'll go grab Haruka!" calls Shuara gleefully.

" _Don't -_ " They're all gone. Gods. Is she really so unstable that she can't control her own clones? She holds her hands up to her face and is surprised at a visible tremble. What…

Nothing's wrong. Everything's going to be okay.

" _HIKARI!_ "

Every window in the school rattles with the force of Teru's shout. Sensory information floods into her mind from her clones.

Bell witnesses Teru, still in his junior high uniform, vaulting the sixteen-foot high front gate with ease. Two black-clad pursuers are left in his dust. He instantly veers in the direction of Hikari's classroom.

Raio notes an abundance of wilted sakura petals and glass shards in the hallways around the sophomore sections.

Bubu's outside already. A horribly disfigured tree has wormed its way directly into the building. A branch spontaneously sprouts from the trunk and lashes out at Teru. He barely dodges its sharpened point. Only Hikari could have done that. Her mischievous little sister Hikari, whose greatest prank was to de-age Akane by a decade. What on earth is she doing, _attacking_ their baby brother?

Every classroom is on lockdown. "Shuara, what's going on?" Haruka is strangely calm, speaking from the other side of a locked door his classmates refuse to open. "Tell me everything you can."

Raio screams the moment she arrives at Hikari's classroom. Blood, so much blood. On the walls, on the floor -

Then Misaki is on her knees, an echo pain right over her heart. It hurts. _It hurts_. Raio is still alive, still holding on despite the excruciating agony and shock and trauma and terror of having a branch shoved through her gut and spine. Phantom blood drenches her fingers. It hurts, _it hurts_ , it's all she can think about, it consumes her mind, it blocks out every other thought -

The tree branch smashes Raio against a wall. Again. Again. All Raio - Misaki - Shuara, Bubu, Bell, Levi, Yuniko, Inari - Raio can do is scream. Her organs are shredded with each motion. Her vision blanches white with agony. Her body burns with frigid fire as she clutches her gut, fingernails digging into bloody wood and empty air.

Darkness.

Raio's suffering ends, the rest of her clones evaporate, and Misaki feels nothing.

"Misaki!" Haruka cries from the bottom of a very deep well. He doesn't matter. Raio is gone. The space where her soul should be is unoccupied. A void. An empty space she can no longer reach. She shields her uninjured intestines from an imaginary hole. Raio's torment still lingers. Her last moments. Her final thoughts before her death.

Misaki can't hold it back any longer. She vomits blood.

She mourns her own death.


	9. Future Probability I

_Beyond all expectations, his other is unbelievably, madly composed. Ah well. He should have expected no less from his other, even if said other heralds from a privileged universe free of despair._

" _Assuming you've hopped over from a parallel universe," is the first thing out of his other's mouth, "it would be logical to assume alternates of my siblings were the ones responsible for the trip and that they're also here. Judging from the recent loss of power and communication, I can conclude you mean to transform this high school into an isolated environment. Are peaceful negotiations completely off the table?"_

 _Despite his efforts to remain professionally composed, he can't keep a slow grin from splitting his poker face in half. "Well. Against my siblings' desires, I_ _ **do**_ _have an alternative. I can only hope you'll follow through on this gracious offer. It'd be a shame if one of my dear siblings discovered you didn't uphold your end of our bargain."_

* * *

12%.

That's an 88% probability that somebody in the Sakurada family will die today.

Even as he thinks this, that number ticks up to 89%. 11% chance of no harm befalling his siblings within the immediate future.

"Open the door," Haruka demands.

His first-period instructor shakes his head. "Mr Haruka, I'm afraid with the school-wide lockdown in place-"

It sickens him, but an image of his alter's cruel smile flashes through his mind as he steels his shoulders and adds an edge to his command. "As the second advisor to your future king, I possess the authority to override school policy in times of emergency. I will now assume responsibility to protect the citizens of my nation. Please, sir, open the door."

He tries to project as much maturity in his voice as he can. He still feels like a young high-school senior using his privilege to order his teacher around. It shows on his teacher's face as well as he surlily obliges.

Haruka bows. It may be the last thing he'll ever do for the man. Or any of his classmates. He sprints from his classroom, collecting new information all the while and recalculating new probabilities. His numbers tell him there's 10% chance _he'll_ be the one to die today, but that's nothing compared to Hikari's 40% and Misaki's 40%. Shuara is nowhere to be seen, but Misaki's room is in the next wing over. Hikari's classroom is an entire floor down. Then three train stops over to Teru (5%) and Shiori (1%).

" _HIKARI!_ "

That was unmistakably Teru's voice. Hikari's likelihood of death rockets up to 85%. Haruka vaults down the nearest stairwell.

Twin screams from Misaki and her clone reverberate down the hallways of two floors and irreparably shatter Haruka's already tenuous focus.

100%.

He's too late.


	10. Gravity Core II

Nobody's picking up.

That's perfectly normal, Akane tells herself. Nothing to get worried over. Dad and Shuu have kingly duties. Aoi has community service. Kanade doesn't even carry her phone on her while on morning hospital rounds. Everybody else is in classes.

Mom though… Mom always picks up.

She's flying in the direction of the castle before she knows it. Just a quick checkup. A minor drop-in. Mom has managed to keep them all alive through many a breakout; she'll know what to do about this city-wide floaty dilemma. She's probably already on local television to curtail public unrest.

This still doesn't feel like her own doing. But… who else could be responsible?

She frowns. In the far distance, the castle has come into view… but it's to her left even though she swears she set her initial trajectory heading straight for it. Only when she readjusts her flight pattern does she realize the undeniable force pulling her off course.

It can't be… _horizontal gravity_?

This is outside her league. This is not her doing. Her expertise in gravity manipulation is entirely vertical _and touch-based_. Another outside force is acting on her-no, _somebody else_ 's power is acting on her and she can't even hope to fight it.

She screams. She fumbles her phone and it accelerates out of her hand, shooting through the airspace above Castle Town towards the highest point in the city: the newscasting tower. Everything previously suspended this morning - all the city's little trinkets, the dropped phones and purse items and silverware and spare change, along with decades of accumulated street trash, recyclables and garbage lifted from bins and landfills - is currently amassing in one gigantic sphere in the sky that collapses in on its own gravitational pull.

"Help!" Akane screams. She restores her own gravity in midair and immediately plummets; the gravity sphere only seems to affect lightweight objects. Her stomach lodges itself in her throat until she suspends herself partially. 25% gravity. 40% gravity. 60% gravity and finally her descent slows to a decent hover. Still, she can't fight the horizontal pull, and every second draws her closer and closer to the tower face…

"Found you!"

Arms wrap around her from behind. She shrieks as she's borne upwards, straight toward the underside of the roaring trash sphere. At the last second however, her captor tosses her onto the rooftop of the newscasting tower. Akane bodily latches onto a handrail and reestablishes her baseline weight, almost weeping into the cold metal as she settles upon solid concrete. She… She almost died…

After she pushes her nausea from the back of her throat and back into her stomach, she turns to face her opponent. There's not much to see; the woman is clothed entirely in black - except for the hands, one of which is holding a pair of gloves.

Their fingernails are painted exactly the same. Right down to the chipped nail polish…

"So you've noticed." Her alternate wiggles her fingers, then slips said fingers under the neckline of her full-head mask and pulls it off to reveal… her own crimson eyes. Her own ruby hair tied into hip-length twintails. Her own face smirking back at her. "Hello, Akane. I'm you."

" _W-What_ are you?" she stammers. "And wh-why are you doing that?"

"It's just a harmless attention-grabber for a special someone we both love dearly. Don't worry, I'm not going to use it to meteor-bomb Castle Town. I'll even pack it down into something more manageable."

She snaps her fingers. The massive sphere is crunched down to half its size with a metallic screech. Akane covers her ears and clings tighter to the railing as the gravitational pull increases.

"Betcha wondering where I came from," says her alternate nonchalantly. "Must've been a pretty shitty world we came from if our only other option was to slide across realities, huh?"

"We?" Akane says faintly. Though it would make sense. How else could her body double have appeared in this world if not with the help of her alternate family? Assuming anything about alternate realities makes sense. Which it doesn't!

"I've got two possible answers to that question, other me. Which answer you choose will determine how you should best approach this situation. It's your life hanging in the balance, so hear me out here, alright?"

This woman can't be her. This woman is brazenly confident. This woman smiles and makes eye contact when Akane can't even manage to stare at anything but the concrete between her legs. This woman wears a _skirt_.

"The first answer is that we came from a parallel world. It's exactly like your Castle Town in looks, but it's plagued with war, famine, pandemics, rebellion and riots, the whole nine yards. Nobody's happy, everything sucks, and the royal Sakurada family has had to fight nonstop to stay in power. We siblings are literally stuck in an eternal breakout. Everything Aoi says is a command. Shuu's intangible because he teleports a hundred times a second - any faster and he'll turn invisible. Teru's a monster and Hikari can kill rebels with a single touch. But our world keeps dying so we finally left it behind to come your perfect world. Now we're taking over.

"But what about that second answer? The alternative is that -"

The gargantuan ball of metal and garbage screeches as it collapses on itself yet again. Akane slaps her hands around her ears and keeps them there. She can't listen anymore.

Her alternate kneels before her, lips still moving. Though she can't hear a single thing, Akane knows. It's the first thing she thought of and now she can't cast the thought away, not when her alternate repeats it word-for-word.

In a flash of white light, Shuu explodes into the space between them. He shoves her alternate and wraps Akane in protective arms. She clings to him, buries her tear-stained face in his warm chest, and holds her breath as they teleport away.

She grasps fistfuls of his sweater and refuses to look around when they land. When he cups that back of her head and rubs slow circles on her back - gods, she feels like a child again, but it's so comforting to retreat into that safe space. Shuu's only a year older. When did he become such a solid pillar of support?

"What did she say?" he asks, a minor sense of urgency in his voice. "What did she tell you?"

She shakes her head.

No. Not now.

Not ever.


	11. Overlimit II

For as long as he can remember, Mom has reminded him every year of their contract: Teru is not to use his power unless absolutely necessary.

A mutant tree trying to spear him in the face with its evil branches definitely qualifies.

Its wizened trunk disintegrates into nothing more than pulp and splinters when he puts his fist through it. Separated from the roots that gave them life, most of the disconnected branches stiffen up and, overcome with gravity, withdraw from the insides of the school building.

Stained crimson, all of them. Crimson fluid dribbles freely from the windowsills. It's like a scene straight out of a horror movie.

"Teru!" Hikari screams. "Help me!"

He doesn't even hesitate, not when his family is in danger. Shielding his face with crossed forearms, Teru smashes his way through the broken windows. Jagged glass shards tear through his uniform. If he wasn't 100% in superpower mode his skin might have been shredded as well, but he's superhumanly strong now, superhumanly durable, superhuman period.

He almost doesn't stick the landing because the floor is slick with thick fluid. He only has eyes for the blonde woman holding the fear-stricken face of his older sister by her chin. The woman isn't facing him, but he recognizes her outfit easily enough. Her black outfit is identical to that of the two ninjas who'd pursued him through the streets on his way here.

"Good, you're here," says the woman. "What kind of lame-ass show would this be if the only audience member died three seconds later?"

Teru flinches. She sounds exactly like Hikari's idol persona, all squeaky and excited and happy, only with a slight undertone of unstable and crazy tossed in now. Then the full meaning of her sentence hits him and he roars. He can't leap forward instantly because he simply can't get traction - his shoes slide against wet tile and he almost faceplants, only barely catching himself by bracing a palm against the floor. Thick red splatters onto the khaki of his pants, all over his forearms, and for several seconds he can only stare at the beads of coagulating liquid slowly rolling across his skin in heart-pounding terror.

Even as Hikari screams, her voice changes. It peaks high but immediately drops in pitch. Hikari's body morphs accordingly. Her bust swells in size and strains against her uniform for seconds until they deflate and sag. Her flesh cycles through healthy pink to yellow to liver-spotted gray. Her fingers grow bony and her fingernails sharpen into claws. Vibrant blue eyes turn opaque while retreating into the depths of her skull. A wave of silver washes all the way through her hair, which begins to fall from her scalp in strands and clumps.

"Stop… resisting… me!" the woman yells.

Every detail burns itself into Teru's mind the closer he gets. Every second is an eternity, a tortuous lifetime to memorize every step of Hikari's excruciatingly prolonged death.

"Teru, no!"

Haruka's shout is heard, but Teru's fist has already met the woman's head. He's close enough to see her face. Vibrant blue eyes wide with fear, mouth agape, voice perfectly pitched to the heartfelt cry of his late sister Hikari. " _Teru_ -"

At great enough strengths, a human head provides little more resistance than a watermelon. Wood, bone, summer fruit. Haruka shoulders him _hard_ on his way past, calling Hikari's name, and in his disoriented state Teru collapses into a standing puddle of crimson. Hikari? Hikari Sakurada died by his own hand. He watched her horrified blue eyes bug out of her skull as he murdered her without a second thought. He clutches his fist - still trembling, still speckled with chips of white and lumps of gray - and weeps.


End file.
